Mother Goose Would Be Proud...EVENTUALLY {Part II: Little Bo Peep}

Project Run and Play, Season 5: White Sheet Challenge {Part II}

We decided for the second part of the 'white sheet challenge': why not see if we can make an HEIRLOOM DRESS from a WHITE SHEET?!?!? Heirloom sewing is a challenge in and of itself for us....so, we thought this would be a perfect way to stretch our sewing skills. The last time we attempted heirloom sewing for CL....well, it didn't go so well. Still, time heals...so we opted to give it another go!

Our 2nd outfit was based around the nursery rhyme, Little Bo Peep. We made a baby daygown using Wendy Schoen's Beautiful Blossom's pattern. The heirloom sewing experience was the best we've ever had....by no means perfect, but bearable! 

After construction, the sleeves and dress hem were finished with entredeux and lace. As a subtle detail, we weaved pink floche between the entredeux of the sleeves and hem, coordinating the outfit with the overall embroidery.

Our embroidery images were selected from a google images search of Little Bo Peep and sheep coloring sheets. Since we were planning on doing shadow embroidery on Little Bo Peep, we took a few details away from the selected google image. We traced the sheep and Little Bo Peep using equipment from our local print shop - their light table. It was ahhhh-maz-ing!

Little Bo Peep's dress, bonnet, bow, shoes, and skin were shadow embroidered. Pink French knots were then added to the main part of her dress and bonnet. French knots were used for her hair, as well as the pink flowers nearby. Her staff was stitched using a basic, chain stitch. The shadow work was subtle, at best, due to the thickness of the sheet. It could be seen....you just had to be looking for it!

The sheep were the most time-consuming part of this project. Again, although we love hand embroidered details, we do not pride ourselves in our embroidery work, nor do we claim speed as an asset in doing handwork.

Each sheep's thick, wooly coat of French knots and shadow embroidered head and legs took approximately 3.5 - 4 hours to complete. Above, is a photo of the sheep progression: sewing (or should I say, knotting), washing, and completing. The handwork alone on this dress took approximately 18 - 21 hours. So, yes, we are S.L.O.W. It was a chaotic, frantic week in our tiny sewing world!!

We threatened to shear a few of those wooly creatures over the course of last week.....and questioned the sanity of choosing to do three sheep, instead of one.

Our "Little Bo Peep" stuck to her end of the rhyme perfectly....she left them alone, and they eventually came home...wagging their tails behind them!

Shockingly, our nursery rhyme, "heirloom" white sheet challenge was practically painless....especially following the "Ring Around the Roses" one. The girls celebrated their nursery rhyme (and new outfit for each) success with a little one-on-one time....a rarity for EA to be trusted with "holding duties!" Do these pictures capture the pure joy of the big sis or what!?!? Melts my heart....

And, believe it or not, after three outfits...there is STILL MORE SHEET TO USE!! So, we're counting on our friends in the Flickr sew-along group to provide some stellar ideas on how to best use the rest of the sheet.

Mother Goose Would Be Proud...EVENTUALLY {Part I: Ring Around the Roses}

Project Run and Play, Season 5: White Sheet Challenge {Part I}

Okay. We'll say it. When the Project Run and Play, season 5 challenges were announced, "White Sheet Challenge" instantly became our favorite one!! There. We said it. Now, as Paul Harvey would say, is 'the rest of the story....', or at least "Part I" to THE saga...

For our 'white sheet challenge', we decided to go for a simple, clean, and classic look with emphasis on details and handwork. Nursery rhymes were a staple in our house while growing up, and our sister has continued that tradition with our nieces. So, what better theme to center this challenge around than some good ol' nursery rhymes? And, not wanting one of the girls to feel slighted, we opted to complete a nursery rhyme pair for the girls....

Our starting point was the nursery rhyme, Ring Around the Roses, for EA. We had just completed an Oliver + S Family Reunion dress, and decided this pattern would be perfect for our nursery rhyme vision. Since the challenge was all about using a white sheet for the majority of the outfit, we wanted to keep it as authentic as possible. So we opted to dye a portion of the sheet cocoa brown for piping and bias tape accents. This was our first dyeing experience and thought we were 'oh so smart' for not tackling a large dyeing process for our first time. WRONG! We dyed it, rinsed it, set it with vinegar, washed, and dried it. Then, we assembled the dress, and decided to set the color overnight one more time before the embroidery details were added. At 4:30 AM the next morning, it was discovered...."HOUSTON, we have a problem!!" Yes, the precious outfit was stained through and through.

Even Voldemort had left his curse on it!!! No amount of scrubbing or elbow grease would fix this problem.

If this hadn't been our favorite outfit planned for Season 5 of Project Run and Play, we would have 'thrown in the white sheet', so to speak, and moved to another week's challenge. But, no, no, no. We wanted to make this work! And, like Harry Potter, we survived the curse....and....

Played the "Glad Game" with our recent failure.

Here's all the things we were thankful for with our "Dummy (and we do mean 'dummy') Project":
1. Buttonholes were a little small....adjustments could be made.
2. Lost a little blood (sweat too, but no tears) on the garment. Happy for a re-do.
3. Embroidery had not been completed. HALLELUJAH!
4. The deadline was not upon us. We had time!
5. Our model could try on the "Dummy Version" (see photos above), giving us the opportunity to double check fit, length, etc.
6. A king-size sheet gave ample material for a re-do outfit (and many, many more)!
7. We forgot our labels in the 1st version, and could get them in the 2nd attempt.

A trip to Hobby Lobby ensued for the brown accent fabric. A few other 'necessities' jumped into the cart. Let's just say, we ate our worries away that evening while cutting more brown bias, as well as another white sheet outfit.

Then, we sewed like mad....before and after our 'paying jobs'...any time we could find a few spare moments. When we made the deadline, let's just say there was some toe-touching going on!

We stuck to the Oliver + S Family Reunion pattern, with minimal changes. We used the 12-18 months pattern, but used the 18-24 months length. And, the final outcome was this:

We have a fondness of piping details on garments, and did a first on this outfit: double piping around the hem.

We also added brown single piping around the yoke and button area of the dress. Then, we added a brown bias strip to finish the dress, instead of using the hem facing instructions in the Family Reunion pattern.

Paper doll children were traced above the double piping detail.

TWENTY handstitched, multi-cultural children joined together for a friendly chant of "Ring Around the Roses." 

Sadly, a multi-cultural pack of DMC doesn't exist (like Crayola crayons),

so we made up our own.

We had seen No Big Dill's paper doll skirt, and had wanted to do something similar to it using handwork/embroidery. We had previously tried some straight stitching, hand embroidery on an outfit after seeing Gail's {probably actually} sweet skirt. But, no shapes or figures... UNTIL NOW!

EA counted and made sure everyone was present before the "Ring Around the Roses" chant began! 

Are you ready for a little "Ring Around the Roses!?!?"

Although we love hand embroidered details, we do not pride ourselves in our embroidery work, nor do we claim speed as an asset in doing handwork. The handwork alone on this dress took approximately 15-18 hours. 

So, yes, we are S.L.O.W. Redoing the dress was not in our original time frame, and another white dress was waiting in the wings....making a frantic week!!

I have a feeling once this project is completed, "we'll all fall down" just like those children. 

But wait.....Little Bo Peep is still looking for her sheet sheep!!! But that, my friends, is "Part II" of THE saga....

Getting "TWIGGY" With It!

Project Run and Play, Challenge Two: Fashion Icon Week

The era was easy for us, and discovering a "Fashion Icon" that epitomizes our style...well, that was icing on the cake, and a breath of fresh air! 

If we were to pick an era of fashion most similar to our tastes, it would be the 1960s, hands down. Vintage, 1960s patterns are the look we're drawn to, more often than not.

Meet Twiggy (or be reintroduced to her): After seeing her a-line, above the knee dresses that she was known for, we were hooked!

Twiggy's style would take a basic, a-line dress and mix/match collar styles (high neck, peter pan, or no collar) and different sleeve lengths, depending on the season. Color blocking was used from time to time as well.

When we told our sister (aka: the nieces' momma) about "Fashion Icon Week," she misunderstood our fashion icon to be "Iggy", as in "Iggy Pop" (?!?!). What she visualized us sewing a 2 year old based on good ol' Iggy is beyond us! Still laughable....and scary....

To determine the "Twiggy Look," we did countless google image searches...found THE LOOK we were going for, and began our "Fashion Icon Quest." 

Our fabric selection, again, was geared toward the 1960s and the fall season that was quickly approaching. We also chose to make this outfit with long sleeves, in the hope it will last through the fall months.

The vintage Butterick 3485 pattern assisted our preliminary plans. We used the yoke, sleeves, and collar of this pattern. The yoke was modified to include a faux a-line belt, and an additional center tab was added.

Covered buttons were placed on the center tab (as well as the back closure), drawing attention to the clean lines and piping details of the dress, collar, and sleeves.

Afterwards, we attached an a-line skirt underneath the faux belt. While there were so many other components that Twiggy incorporated in her various wardrobe pieces, most outfits were classic and clean with simple lines and details. So, we tried to do just that: keep it simple and classic.

We couldn't have asked for a better photo session with the niece! She was adorable, cooperative, sweet, etc. etc. In fact, while we were taking the photos, she assisted in 'choosing' her own spots for pictures. Of course, we had to throw in a little knee sock action...for Twiggy's sake.

Hope you enjoyed our little flashback to the 1960s....we know we did!!

Cosmopolitan Girl....OR, a Flapper

Okay...if you need to be reminded: We get pretty pumped about another season of Project Run and Play! WHY? Well, it is because it pushes us to new, different, out-of-the-box concepts. It gives us a 'free ticket' to attempt things out of our comfort zone, we receive such sweet comments via our flickr feed, and we like a challenge. Technically, our day to day sewing projects are a challenge for us.....it's just a matter of how BIG of a challenge each becomes!

On challenge 1, we hit the ground running on 'attempting things out of our comfort zone!' And, the final modeled result had us in stitches....Her daddy called her a "Cosmopolitan Girl," while we compared her to a "Flapper."

Here are some new things we attempted during the course of this challenge:
*drafting a pattern (much more than we've done in the past)
*sewing with non-traditional children's fabric
*sewing with UNfinished bias
*working with stretch knit
*tracing a pair of her leggings to create a new pair using this tutorial by dana made it.
*ruching

How this project came to be:
It began with a Project Run and Play Challenge: remix No Big Dill's A Very Biased Skirt. We discussed the possibilities, planned other contestants / sew-along friends' outfits (hypothetically, of course...but it sure is fun imagining what others might do!), and then decided it was best to focus and plan ours. A sketch ensued, fabric was bought (eerily similar to No Big Dill's fabric selection - we couldn't contain ourselves), and a few freak-outs / seam-ripping moments occurred before the final stitch was sewn. 

We drafted a pattern to make an asymmetrical, wrap-skirt bodice swing top.

The early stages of it looked more like a wedding crasher mummy in party-garb. Given the fabric selection, we wanted to give this outfit a little 'edge.' Accents of bling were placed on the ruched leggings, as well as the back of the narrow yoke.

The "Model Test": It fit perfectly (and we all breathed a huge sigh of relief)!! Since it was NOTHING like we had ever sewn before, we howled with laughter as our little 'Flapper' strutted her stuff. And strut she did! Guess she thought she was pretty snazzy....

Cracked. Us. Up.

The UNfinished bias still makes us cringe a bit, and placing bias strips in a non-patterned way was difficult! We were pleased with the outcome of the garment, but still giggle over the fact we actually made something of this style.

We were able to take a quick trip outdoors for some photos before the rain drove us indoors once again.

Things we learned from this experience:

No matter how many measurements are taken, there is always room for a few more! And, yes, we succombed to M&M bribery for the measurements we snagged....Ultimately, we thought the swing top would fit her mid-thigh, but it barely covered her backside.

Lots of overlapping bias strips make for a heavy outfit....especially for a little one. 

Stretch knit is s-t-r-e-t-c-h-y (okay, we technically knew that, but WOW). We want some adult versions of these leggings!!

The ruching didn't work out as anticipated. The gathered appearance of the legs wasn't noticable once it was said and done. Still, the bling added enough of an accent for this garment.

We have a greater appreciation for each entry in this sew-along challenge. The time/effort expended in working with piles of bias is applaudable!! Kudos to all those taking the challenge in the sew-along flickr pool!! 

Now, we are just wondering....

what YOU have come up with....